Rob Atkinson has conducted research into state technology policies. He is preparing a report called the 2007 State of the New Economy Index, funded by the Kaufman Foundation. The report is expected to be released at the end of February in conjunction with the National Governors’ Association (NGA) conference.

Atkinson has evaluated 5 policy indicators of the new economy, one of those is the Digital Economy. His focus is on how broadband technologies can promote economic development. He referred to 3 studies showing a link between broadband and ec. growth – one from MIT, one from Florida, and a third he could not remember. He said he would send us links to these studies.

Rob has looked at the various OECD studies of broadband take rates and found a strong correlation between BBd take rates and cold weather. He said Alaska had the highest take rate of U.S. states. He also noted that Iceland, Norway, Sweden all have high take rates.

He mentioned a number of states that, in his opinion, had done some interesting work to promote broadband;

Alberta, Canada: in his opinion has been the most aggressive of any gov’t to promote rural broadband

Prince Edward Island, Canada: has also announced a large BBd initiative.

He said the Mayor of Ft. Wayne Indiana is an energetic and enlightened guy (Graham) who is doing lots of innovative measures to promote broadband. He is promoting excess BBd capacity for firemen and for distance medicine, for instance. He is convening a conference of municipalities to promote e-government killer applications.

He’s not a huge fan of municipalities building duplicative BBd facilities. He thinks they would usually make more efficient use of their money to partner with private sector companies that have already put some fiber in the ground.

Finally, he mentioned the idea of creating digital e-books that the Library of Congress could administer. Libraries around the country could tap into the Library of Congress and allow consumers to check out books for 3 weeks (or so) electronically. Rick noted that “Overdrive” has been trying to develop this model, but has encountered resistance from publishers.